Saharah Moon Chapotin

Office of Agricultural Research & Transformation Bureau for Food Security

U.S. Agency for International Development

Global Food Security Research Strategy

Feed the Future Global Food Security Research Strategy

FTF Research Strategy aims to:

• Increase agricultural productivity and reduce environmental impact

• Improve markets, institutions and policies• Raise smallholder incomes and resilience• Increase availability of and access to

nutritious foods

Specific Objectives:

• Problem-focused agricultural research• Global & regional/country-level public

goods research• Adaptive research at country-level• Integrates biophysical sciences, social

sciences, policy research• Capacity building is underlying theme

Cross-cutting themes - to foster inclusive, sustainable agricultural productivity gains and improvements in child nutrition

• Resilience to climate change• Sustaining natural resource base• Gender awareness/inclusivity

Using poverty & nutrition lens, identify key production systems where hunger and poverty are significant…

Defining FTF Research Priorities

Sub-national poverty ca. 2005 (<$1.25/day)

Prevalence

Number

Source: Stan Wood et al. (IFPRI) 2009.

Source: USAID and IFPRI, using Harvest Choice maps

Child stunting

Dixon, 2001

Farming Systems

This process led to focus on:

What? Sustainable Intensification

Where? Agro-ecologies in Focus Countries• Spillovers to region

Who? Leveraging partnerships• US Universities• International Agriculture Research Centers• National Agriculture Research Systems• Private Sector

Implementing the Research Strategy:

• Building the research portfolio

• Identify and engage partners

• Link outputs to country-level programs & processes

Building a Research Portfolio

• Identify researchable constraints to production

• Establish criteria for selection of priorities• Build pipeline of short, medium, long term

impact• Manage risk with portfolio approach – fewer

high risk, more lower risk investments

Investment criteria• Relevance to poverty, women and children and food security• Likelihood of success: Technical merit and pathways for adoption• Cost/Benefit considerations• Economic sustainability for producers/adopters• Natural resources sustainability: water, soil, ecosystem and

climate change• Institutional sustainability and impact on capacity: engagement of

national and regional partners • Time Frame: timeline, milestones• Risks: potential impacts on vulnerable groups, environment or

breakdown in key pathways

Consultative ProcessIn collaboration with BIFAD, USDA, APLU

• January 2011 – Meeting at Purdue with research community

• May 2011 – Global e-consultation on research strategy

• June 21-23, 2011 – Forum for stakeholders in Washington, DC

FTF Research Themes

• Advancing the Productivity Frontier

• Transforming Key Production Systems

• Enhancing Nutrition and Food Safety

Advancing the Productivity Frontier• Overcoming major crop and livestock productivity

constraints: increase yields and incomes

• Breeding and genetics for major crops & livestock

• Livestock infectious diseases

• Aquaculture systems management

• Livestock feed improvements (availability/quality)

• Policies and partnerships for technology adoption

Increasing crop resilience to climate change

Abiotic stress tolerance research to address major emerging global challenges:

– Rising temperatures– Water availability– Climate variability– Population pressure– Resource use– Land availability

Methods: conventional breeding & advanced molecular approaches

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Cassava Resistant to mosaic disease in E. Africa

Source: Larry Beach

Banana resistant to black sigatoka disease in E. Africa

Source: Larry Beachj

Insect resistant potato in S. Africa

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Genetic Engineering of African Staple Crops: Solving production constraints that cannot be solved using conventional breeding

Capacity building in biosafety policy and regulatory science

• Building decision-making capacity on biotechnology

• Enhance capability of partners to develop fully functional biosafety systems– Necessary to evaluate new applications of biotechnology– Ensure that only safe products of biotechnology are

deployed, absence of biosafety framework precludes all adoption

– Includes tools and information to assess safety and make decisions on introduction of new products

• Necessary component of enabling policy environment for technology adoption– also seed laws and IPR

Enhanced Nutrition & Food Safety

• Grain legume productivityo Abiotic stress tolerance, nitrogen fixation, disease/pest

resistance, system integration

• Biofortification of staple crops• Reduce/eliminate mycotoxin contamination• Reduce post-harvest losses• Decision making and behavioral change for

improved nutrition• Improved policies for nutrition and food safety

Transforming Key Production Systems• Integrate global technology with site specific natural

resource, social science, and market research• Link global research partners with regional & national• Integrate research with development interventions

Rice-Wheat system of South Asia East Africa highlands system Southern & East African maize-based systems West African Sudano-Sahelian systems

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South Asia Sub-Saharan AfricaYield Yield

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Sustainable intensification – more with less

Cereal Systems in the Indo-gangetic Plains

• Home to 900M people (1/7 world population)

• Dominated by rice-wheat, rice-rice, rice cotton systems

• Breadbasket of S. Asia

• Key constraintso Water availability

o Labor Shortages

o Soil erosion/nutrient depletion

o Available land

o Climate change

Source: IRRI

Intensifying production in South Asian cereal systems

• Retention of Crop Residues

• Minimal/zero Tillage of Soil

• Innovative Cropping Systems

• Mechanization• Improved Varieties• Better Policies

Target Interventions Outcomes• Reduced erosion / run-off• Improved water and

nutrient use efficiency & soil health

• New crops in rotations• Reduced labor costs• Climate change

adaptation• Improved total factor

productivity (not just yield!)

Capacity Building at All Levels• Agricultural education, extension, training, policies

and research

• Capacity of smallholders to use new scientific innovations and technologies

• Integrate capacity development and research investments for maximum impact and sustainability

• Capacity needs for monitoring and evaluation (M&E)

Global Research Partners• US Universities

– Collaborative Research Support Programs and other collaborations

– Other Competitive Grants Programs (USDA/NIFA, NSF BREAD, etc.)

• CGIAR• NARS partners in Focus Countries• Private sector companies and institutions• USDA/USAID Norman Borlaug Commemorative

Research Initiative

Linking research outcomes to end-users• USAID Mission country-level programs

– Bring innovations to farmers– Enhance market access (infrastructure, information

systems)– Engage governments (national and local) to adopt and

implement enabling policies– Improve local capacity for research, policy making

• USAID/Washington centrally-funded programs– Building research capacity – Developing global extension platform

www.feedthefuture.govFeed the Future

the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security

initiative